Supplies checked, Karkat brings the kit and water over to where Sansa is sitting. She's gotten things out of the way well enough. It's not an ideal situation by far, not with such risk of infection, but it's the best he can offer her under the circumstances. It wouldn't be him doing it if they had better options.
Crouching at her side, he sets to work. It's not that he missed her question; he paused when he heard it. But he takes gauze and water, wetting the former, to wipe away what he can of the blood around the wound. He pours a little water directly to try to flush out anything she might have picked up in the gouge. Last, he dabs around the perimeter with antiseptic, not poking the damaged flesh itself. Then he sets the flap as straight as he can.
"I ran from the Cornucopia," he starts once he goes for the needle and thread. The needle gets its own wipe with the antiseptic. "I didn't want to risk dying there again or getting injured."
How does he judge the length of thread for this kind of thing? He holds it up above the wound, pulling it, guessing, unraveling more. Once he's snipped and threaded it, he lines them up by the edge of her wound. "Stare at a tree if it's easier."
Then he starts. His work is slow, careful, compensating for his uncertainty and mixed with a desire to do no unnecessary harm. As he works he speaks slowly.
"I saw what looked like my planet, Alternia, and I went for that. If nothing else it would be more familiar than the rest. The trouble was that there was water between me and it, so I had to turn around, and through that I ran into this guy, Nitou. He had my sickle." The red one, still laying away from them. "I saw it at the Cornucopia earlier, but you already know I didn't risk it. Luckily I was able to convince him to hand it over, with the agreement that I'd help him out if we met up later. Which we did." It went fine enough.
"From there, I went along toward the desert, because I had zero patience for hauling myself across the water in a boat. There... I ran into Luna and--and Maglev. The District 6 girl that got reaped. Maglev had found this big... You know what cars are by now, right? This big stupid thing on wheels, covered in death spikes and looking like the most dangerous vehicle I'd ever laid ganderbulbs on. Somehow I gave up enough sanity to climb in, and we rode across the desert, into the Alternian desert, ran over a daywalker or two, and made it to the city.
"We explored some while we were there. I met other people and helped them, too, now and then. There was also this time I got completely waylaid--we had run into a Mother Grub, and then I heard an imperial drone... They're these giant bipedal things covered in a spiky carapace, and even one would have culled us on the spot if we stopped long enough to be found. So we ran, I got separated, and long story short I had one completely bugnuts crazypants adventure through the Carnival, the desert, a fucking cave, and through the desert again, with way too many dead things and a terrible headache to show for it."
He pauses here, frowning some, looking over what he's done so far. It's gone fine enough, not too hard once he got the rhythm of it.
"The second week... It went fine for a while, until the Gamemakers decided to royally screw me over. They started their mockup of the Reckoning, basically this rain of meteors that pulverized everything in the Alternian section to dust. The city, the forest, probably the desert section too. I ran, I helped some other girl escape, and by some lucky fluke and my sheer determination to not die to what I already escaped once, we survived.
"At... At one point, though..."
How does he even say it? His lips press tight.
"Maglev got separated from me again. I found her, but--" Quick blinks, a deep breath, a shake of his head. For a space he says no more, instead setting to finishing Sansa's stitches and trying them off. Snip the extra thread, rinse his hands, clean the needle again, put it away, and... "Maglev died. The--the guy who killed her is dead, too."
He snaps the first aid kit shut and rises.
"I spent last week in the forest. Not much happened then."
wandwaves over how the heck stitches work, idek
Crouching at her side, he sets to work. It's not that he missed her question; he paused when he heard it. But he takes gauze and water, wetting the former, to wipe away what he can of the blood around the wound. He pours a little water directly to try to flush out anything she might have picked up in the gouge. Last, he dabs around the perimeter with antiseptic, not poking the damaged flesh itself. Then he sets the flap as straight as he can.
"I ran from the Cornucopia," he starts once he goes for the needle and thread. The needle gets its own wipe with the antiseptic. "I didn't want to risk dying there again or getting injured."
How does he judge the length of thread for this kind of thing? He holds it up above the wound, pulling it, guessing, unraveling more. Once he's snipped and threaded it, he lines them up by the edge of her wound. "Stare at a tree if it's easier."
Then he starts. His work is slow, careful, compensating for his uncertainty and mixed with a desire to do no unnecessary harm. As he works he speaks slowly.
"I saw what looked like my planet, Alternia, and I went for that. If nothing else it would be more familiar than the rest. The trouble was that there was water between me and it, so I had to turn around, and through that I ran into this guy, Nitou. He had my sickle." The red one, still laying away from them. "I saw it at the Cornucopia earlier, but you already know I didn't risk it. Luckily I was able to convince him to hand it over, with the agreement that I'd help him out if we met up later. Which we did." It went fine enough.
"From there, I went along toward the desert, because I had zero patience for hauling myself across the water in a boat. There... I ran into Luna and--and Maglev. The District 6 girl that got reaped. Maglev had found this big... You know what cars are by now, right? This big stupid thing on wheels, covered in death spikes and looking like the most dangerous vehicle I'd ever laid ganderbulbs on. Somehow I gave up enough sanity to climb in, and we rode across the desert, into the Alternian desert, ran over a daywalker or two, and made it to the city.
"We explored some while we were there. I met other people and helped them, too, now and then. There was also this time I got completely waylaid--we had run into a Mother Grub, and then I heard an imperial drone... They're these giant bipedal things covered in a spiky carapace, and even one would have culled us on the spot if we stopped long enough to be found. So we ran, I got separated, and long story short I had one completely bugnuts crazypants adventure through the Carnival, the desert, a fucking cave, and through the desert again, with way too many dead things and a terrible headache to show for it."
He pauses here, frowning some, looking over what he's done so far. It's gone fine enough, not too hard once he got the rhythm of it.
"The second week... It went fine for a while, until the Gamemakers decided to royally screw me over. They started their mockup of the Reckoning, basically this rain of meteors that pulverized everything in the Alternian section to dust. The city, the forest, probably the desert section too. I ran, I helped some other girl escape, and by some lucky fluke and my sheer determination to not die to what I already escaped once, we survived.
"At... At one point, though..."
How does he even say it? His lips press tight.
"Maglev got separated from me again. I found her, but--" Quick blinks, a deep breath, a shake of his head. For a space he says no more, instead setting to finishing Sansa's stitches and trying them off. Snip the extra thread, rinse his hands, clean the needle again, put it away, and... "Maglev died. The--the guy who killed her is dead, too."
He snaps the first aid kit shut and rises.
"I spent last week in the forest. Not much happened then."